MJIrene

My wife and I are waiting on the AOS as well, as we were married here in March and sent our paperwork in April and then found out our case was transferred to Cali this summer. We are just glad she got authorization to work and she will apply for jobs soon. It would be nice to have the green card, but as long as she has permission to work we are happy for that and hoping it won't be too long. I think you have to look for the positives. God bless to all who are waiting on the workers in California! Hang in there!

Hi! just keep all the evidence of relationship that you have especially if you've been meet together only in one time. Evidence like, remittance, pictures, emails, phone bills, plane ticket if you had flight together and many others. during interview you must prepared ahead of time all the documents that needed and other supported documents because its better to be over prepared than lacking.

Hi kristinebelle!

I agreed with wally Greene, if they kept your passport, its a good sign that your visa was approve during your interview.After submitted of all needed documents, mostly it takes number of days for them to review. Just be humble in waiting because you will received your visa soon.

Before, my interview was January 17, 2012 and i got my visa after 3 1/2 days. I wondered why it so fast, but all we know its God's will. Keep praying for all your papers that you've submitted. God bless!

MJIrene

congratulations!! God is really good all the time!

I am here in ohio and happily married more than a month already to my sweetheart. Mostly you can received your visa 2 weeks or more after interview but mine was 3 1/2 days only, awesome!

God bless your next journey..Travel safely!

Yeah, its possible..That's what i did before. To get a CfO sticker will take one day only so you must do a medical exam first then schedule interview after. When you received the visa that's the time for you to attend guidance and counseling to have certificate then to cfo office in the afternoon. You cant able to received cfo sticker with out certificate from guidance and counseling because its needed there.

God bless you both!

MJirene

hurray, we will file soon, as we just married. good luck and God bless you! MJ and Irene

I filed my AOS March 9,2012! March Filers let me hear from you!

Congrats! we are the same..

i shared my interview experience here too. By God's grace, i got my visa after 3 1/2 days of my interview. It was so fast..Hope you will get the same to us. God bless!!

now that irene has her visa approved, i just wanted to revisit this so if someone searches this topic, they can get more help.

in her interview, the fact that we had a Pastor at our engagement party was not an issue at all. they never asked her if she was already married or had any questions suspecting the engagement party.

we knew we wanted to give all glory for our relationship to Jesus Christ and we were simply not going to have a secular enagement party. you have to keep your values and we just made sure that we made a program and banners that all said Engagement Party and made sure to document it all as such if called into question.

if anyone gets in our situation and wants more advice on how to do a religous engagement party, feel free to email or pm me on the site here.

all best,

MJ

quote name='MJIrene' timestamp='1314395699' post='4868436']

i think it's not an obligation. the engagement party to me is an opportunity for the family on that side to see the bride to be and to meet and interact. it is also a way to honor God for the blessing of a relationship made across cultures and worlds. to me, that is well worth doing, and yes it costs money but so does everything else and we will try to keep it reasonable as possible. we think it's worth it! and yes, well, we know our relationship is legit, but the more reading you do, it seems sometimes you really have to prove it beyond any doubt to an outsider, so i think it's best to take every careful step and not have any questions whatsoever! here's hoping! thanks for the replies.

MJ

Southcalhog point is really good. It's very confusing as really the K1 is a nonimmigrant visa but if you click those links you will never find the K designation. You must click immigrant visa link.

I'll answer my own question now that I know, just for benifit of others who might be wondering.

You can do it both ways. You can call and set your visa interview ahead of the medical exam, and then if there are problems or timing issues, you can reschedule your visa interview. For instance, Irene met a nice gal named Rose who already had her interview scheduled, but ran into some problems in the exam and will have to take some treatment for a few months before she is cleared medically. So she will need to reschedule her interview, and important to note, don't ever cancel it once you have it set up, but just reschdule it, even if it is months down the road.

On the other hand, you can pass the medical first and then call after you have that result and schedule the interview. That is what we did, just to be safe.

All best,

MJ

what a wonderful write up and so helpful for everyone. thank you! MJ and Irene

Yes, and you can then follow that consulate and you will get an email each time that someone on the site interviews there and writes a report. My fiance has been helped a lot by reading all those experiences as she is waiting for her interview there soon as well. Good luck and all that research and reading can really make it much less of a mystery!

MJ

My heart is broke.

My fiancee arrived the Nov. 15th. I have been the happiest guy in the world with my fiancee until I got home from work today and found out she was gone. No message, no communication, her luggage is gone.

She seemed very happy here. We did lots of shopping, eating out, got a christmas tree in the forest, hockey games, cooking together..... I thought we were very happy as far as I knew. We had a great evening together last night, she seemed more romantic then ever and I went to work this morning like normal. She was talking to me via phone messages all day as usual.

Her phone is shut off now from the moment I arrived home from work. I tried to send her an email and it was rejected.

I do not know where she is. She does not know any people around my city. I found out through my phone bill she has been talking to people in 3 other states a lot for days so I assume she is in one of those states becuase she did not know anyone here.

I can not believe this has happened to me. I treated her like a princess always. I do not understand why women use men. I have known her for 2 years and we talked every day. How can women be so heartless to just leave and not say anything? I put 100's of hours into helping her get her visa and paid for everything. And she leaves me without any conversation at all?

I am confused as to what to do? Report her missing? Call the numbers she was calling? I don't think they will tell me anything she must have beening organizing with them to leave.

I'm sure someone has covered this, but it's frustrating. My fiance just paid the $350 fee there at the bank in Manila today so that's all good.

The language on the letter is a bit confusing. She needs to fill out DS-160 online, so she is doing that. Then she needs the medical exam BEFORE she calls to get the visa interview date? What I'm asking is should Irene pass the medical exam before she sets a visa interview date? My thinking is no problem she will pass the medical exam, but if she by chance would not, that would invalidate her interview if I'm reading things right.

The other question from those with experience is say she calls in to schedule the interview for the visa, what kind of date range are they going to give her? I mean, will they give her a choice or will it be a set date, take it or leave it, and generally, how many days out is the interview from the day you call to set it up?

The reason I ask is that I just got my letter from my employer and I need to send her proof of support in the mail this week and that is going to take time to get there, and I know she needs this in hand for the visa interview.

So I'm having Irene schedule her medical exam today. Any advice on when or if she should call to set up the visa interview as well?

Thanks for any help! We've come so far and waited so long, we certainly don't want to screw it up now. We are praying about it every day to just be patient and do the right steps. Thank God for this website as well!

MJ

greatness! al the best. omg maybe thats y im not gettin my noa2 soon patience has completely ran out.

But as usual Very happy when i see ppl receiving their approval

hang in there! and put your trust in God as you can only control a certain amount. wish you all the best!

that's more than just a nice write up. it's a blessing and thank you so very much. salamat my friend.

God bless and keep you!

MJ

And guess what? There is joy involved in the process too! Followed soon by the need for more patience ha ha

Anyway, great news, Just got our letter of NOA2 last week, HURRAY, after sending in more evidence it came pretty quick. Now we look "forward" to seeing how long it will take to get the next step and the embassy interview in Manila. I think the estimates vary greatly, but one thing I see over and over on the site is the need for faith and patience. We will try to have both and thanks to everyone who shares their story and journey here. It is very appreciated and helpful!

God bless! MJ

You know I really feel for you in that situation, and will pray it works out for you. My father is also in very bad condition and I think it puts you in a tough situation. I wish the authorities would recognize these very human situations and respect the religious aspect of life, to honor your parents and to honor God and put those values above all. Be careful and just do everything honestly and I think it should work out. All best, MJ

Hi, i just want to clarify, is the engagement party a religious obligation? It sounds like its a big party and kinda expensive. My then Fiance, which is now my wonderful husband proposed to me in Bohol, one amazing sunrise while walking down the shore of a white beach were everything is so beautiful, he kneeled down and asked to be his forever. Just the two of us. No Engagement party, no banner, no big expenses. Point is that as long as you were able to met in person in 2 years, prove it through passport stamps and pictures. You dont have to worry as long as your relationship is legit.

i think it's not an obligation. the engagement party to me is an opportunity for the family on that side to see the bride to be and to meet and interact. it is also a way to honor God for the blessing of a relationship made across cultures and worlds. to me, that is well worth doing, and yes it costs money but so does everything else and we will try to keep it reasonable as possible. we think it's worth it! and yes, well, we know our relationship is legit, but the more reading you do, it seems sometimes you really have to prove it beyond any doubt to an outsider, so i think it's best to take every careful step and not have any questions whatsoever! here's hoping! thanks for the replies.

MJ

Thanks for the replies so much, and we are looking forward to our engagement party so much.

The specific thing I'm looking for help on is really if the Pastor can give a small sermon. I think from the responses this will be fine, as long as we make everything clear this is not a wedding and he is not officiating. I think some people choose not to have a Pastor involved at all just to avoid any confusion of marriage, but I feel that would be going a little far and would be disrespectful of our Pastor, especially as he was the one who raised Irene as a Christian in the church and he's so close to us both already.

We will have Irene's cousin be M.C. and I think that will be good to not have the Pastor be the leader of the program, but he can be a good part of it.

Thanks for the advice so far, and if we need to rethink things for any reason from your experience, let us know!

God bless!

MJ

I'm new on the site but will see my gal Irene in early September and we are planning an Engagement Party at a local resort near her hometown in Mindanao.

The things I'm a little confused on have to do with the religous nature of this ceremony. Obviously, I have heard we want to be very careful to not have it in a church or have a Pastor bless us or have us exchange vows.

I have also heard it's better to dress like you are dressing up, but not a full blown suit for man and wedding looking dress for woman. Is this correct?

We are planning on clearly documenting that this is an Engagement party and not a wedding, with banners and program and receipts all saying Engagement.

The question I have is that someone told me a Pastor should not be involved at all. This would be horrible if true.

We are both Christians and want God to have the glory for our engagement and future together. We will also have many relatives and friends there, and it would be great to have some sort of message, exhortation, and prayer to go with the party and food and eats. Plus we both want to sing some Christian songs for the party.

I'm sure people on here have been through this, but I'm finding conflicting advice in the search engine, and there is no real guidelines that I see for this sort of party on the US gov immigration site or anywhere else I look.

Any advice from people who have been there, particularly in the Philippines, would be greatly appreciated!

MJ

p.s. on my second visit to Irene to visit her family and meet her parents, her Pastor from her home church was just with us every step, translating, providing good advice, having fun and visiting with us. . .etc. Irene is very very close to this man, and it's really hard to think of not involving him in the party. I sure hope he can play a big role as long as we do it right! By the way, these are Protestants, not Catholics, if that makes a difference.

Just want to thank all the people for positing here, and sharing knowledge and just as importantly, the idea that one must be patient and careful. My fiance and I have just filed our I-129f and it's hard to think about all the time it might take, but it's very encouraging to know there are many good people who have been though this before and we won't be all alone in the experience.

All best!

MJ